Cyclist escapes prosecution after fatal collision with pensioner
A speeding cyclist involved in a fatal collision with a pensioner could not be prosecuted because speed limits do not apply to bicycles, a court heard.
Brian Fitzgerald, a director at Credit Suisse, was in a “fast group” of cyclists doing timed laps of Regent’s Park in London when Hilda Griffiths, 81, crossed the road they were on to try to reach a pedestrian island.
Despite a 20mph speed limit, Mr Fitzgerald, a member of the Muswell Hill Peloton cycling club, told a coroner they were travelling at up to 29 mph in aerodynamic “pace line” formation to maximise momentum when he struck the retired nursery teacher walking her dog.
He said he had “zero-reaction time”, adding how cyclists are not required to obey 20mph signs because “the legal speed limit doesn’t apply to cyclists [the same] as motorists”.
Police concluded there was “insufficient evidence for a real prospect of conviction” and the case closed with “no further action”.
Detective Sergeant Ropafadzo Bungo told Inner West London Coroners Court there were “no specific” speed limit signs for cyclists and a police review found “there were no criminal acts which would allow prosecution” for cyclists who exceed speed limits.
Mrs Griffiths, from Marylebone, was in the collision shortly after 7am on a Saturday in June 2022. The three other cyclists in the group avoided her.
She suffered multiple fractures, vomited blood in the ambulance, and had severe “bleeding on the brain”. Because it took her 59 days to die from head injury “complications”, she will not appear on official data as a pedestrian killed on a road following a collision with a cyclist.
Mr Fitzgerald, who expressed his “sympathies” to her family, said he was “not sure” if there was a “SLOW” sign at the accident scene near Hanover Terrace.
He saw “an elderly woman” from “about 20m” away as he cycled between 26-29 mph before she got 2m into the road leaving a “split second” response time which “didn’t allow for evasion”.
He denied having his head down as the third of four cyclists riding counterclockwise a metre apart in pace line formation to create a “wind buffer” to “travel faster” for a more “organised ride”. They monitored speed with GPS devices, showing an average 25 mph pace.
Mr Fitzgerald said the spot Mrs Griffiths was crossing was on a slight downhill stretch so the pace had quickened.
Asked if the 20 mph limit “applied to all”, he said: “I believe legally the speed limit doesn’t apply to cyclists [the same] as motorists.”
He added: “I’ve never seen any police in the park having any objections to the speed cyclists travel at.”
Speed limits only apply to motorists
Richard Hallam, representing Mr Fitzgerald, said the Road Traffic Act states that speed limits only apply to “mechanically propelled vehicles and not cyclists”.
DS Bungo agreed, adding: “Correct, because mechanically propelled vehicles have the ability to identify the speed one is actually moving at.”
She added a police photograph taken after Mrs Griffiths’s death showed a “SLOW” sign ahead of the pedestrian island.
Mr Fitzgerald said Mrs Griffiths stepped out without looking at the oncoming cyclists. A jogger witness claimed the collision was not the cyclist’s fault.
Ellen Robertson, the Griffiths family barrister, called on Jean Harkin, the assistant coroner to issue a prevention of future deaths report because “the advertised speed limits of 20 mph in a park populated with children and elderly pedestrians – highlighted as vulnerable in the Highway Code – are not being followed by cyclists.”
“That means we have a park with large groups of cyclists travelling in pace formation, as Mr Fitzgerald described, one behind each other, very close, in circumstances where a speed limit is 20 mph.”
She added: “That makes it very hard for pedestrians, let alone children or the elderly, to judge the distance where they would think 20 mph is the likely speed, particularly as cyclists are harder to hear and see.”
Mr Hallam suggests the installation of a zebra crossing at the scene could “oblige” cyclists to stop for pedestrians. Mr Fitzgerald said: “There would be much more of a tendency – obligation, in fact – to slow down” by cyclists at a zebra crossing “if there was a pedestrian anywhere in the vicinity.”
Mrs Harkin recorded an “accidental cycling collision death” rejecting a call for a future deaths report because “there has never been a death of a pedestrian as a result in these circumstances”.
She added: “We know the police investigated the matter and no charges were brought. We have also heard that the Road Traffic Act refers to motor vehicles, not to cyclists.”
Killed by cycling culture: Victorian laws must be updated
By Steve Bird
Just days before Hilda Griffiths suffered fatal injuries in a collision with a speeding cyclist in Regent’s Park, the 81-year-old was uncharacteristically forthright about the perils she faced on her early morning dog walk.
“Those bloody cyclists are getting worse, you know,” she told her son, explaining how the famous London park owned by the Crown Estate had become a race track for middle-aged and invariably middle-class men dressed in Lycra recording, sharing and comparing their best lap times.
For 50 years, the retired nursery nurse had taken her dogs for walks there, ensuring that despite her advancing years, she remained fit and healthy.
Her son, Gerard, 52, now feels her words were almost prophetic.
“She was right, with 35 or more cycling clubs with hundreds of members in the park, it was only a matter of time before tragic outcomes occurred,” he told her inquest on Thursday.
Speaking from his home in Marylebone, central London, Mr Griffiths said he would now join the growing number of people – often relatives of pedestrians killed following collisions with cyclists – calling for laws to be updated.
The inquest heard speed limits do not apply to pedal cycles, because they are not mechanically propelled or have speedometers.
‘Wanton and furious’
Mr Griffiths also believes cyclists who kill while riding recklessly or dangerously but only face a maximum of two years imprisonment under a Victorian “wanton or furious” riding charge, should face the same life sentence as motorists convicted of causing death by dangerous driving.
“I firmly believe my mother was killed by the culture of cycling that has grown up around Regent’s Park over the last few years,” the caretaker said.
While the relatively flat and round park with “inner” and “outer” circles is popular with commuter cyclists on weekdays, Mr Griffiths said it becomes a “velodrome for those who take cycling seriously and have high-performance carbon fibre bikes, riding in groups sometimes as large as 25, and in full club kit.”
Explaining how the loss of momentum is any club cyclist’s worst nightmare, he said: “Many neither have the will nor obligation to slow or stop if someone, be they young or old, is crossing ahead of them.
“The laws are inadequate and need to change. If any other type of vehicles were travelling over the speed limit in that same formation – essentially tailgating – they would be committing an offence.”
On a pleasant Saturday morning in June 2022, Mrs Griffiths, who had early signs of dementia, left her Marylebone home with her dog Oscar, for their 6am stroll.
An hour and 15 minutes later, a 999 call was received reporting a pensioner having been “struck” by a cyclist who was later revealed was travelling up to 29 mph in a 20 mph zone.
‘There was a lot of blood’
Brian Fitzgerald, a young City banker and member of the Muswell Hill Peloton cycling club, was the third of four cyclists in a “fast group” travelling 1m apart and recording their laps. He said Mrs Griffiths did not look towards the oncoming cyclists as she stepped out on the Outer Circle road and he collided with her.
He told the court he was “devastated” and extended his “sympathies” to her family, adding how it was a “tragic accident which could have happened to any other cyclist in that park that day.”
He added: “We had little or no reaction time. She fell heavily. There was a lot of blood pouring from her head and she appeared to be unconscious.
Asked if the “responsible thing to do” would be to “slow down” near a pedestrian island, he said the group was cycling in an “orderly fashion” at a “normal speed” and “no one saw fit to reduce speed at that time”.
Mr Fitzgerald said he was aware the Highway Code warns elderly and young pedestrians - the most vulnerable in the hierarchy of road users - can step into the road without notice.
His Muswell Hill Peloton cycling makes much on its website about how “safety on the road is our number one priority” and members must “adhere to the rules of the road”.
They failed to answer whether Mr Fitzgerald was still a member or whether its cyclists routinely exceed speed limits.
In a statement, the group said “the safety of pedestrians, our cyclists and fellow road users is our top priority at all times”.
“This was a tragic accident, as the coroner recorded, and we are devastated by the death of Mrs Griffiths,” they added.
Mr Griffiths said: “Mum was taken too soon and these people seem to bear no blame or responsibility, which is fundamentally wrong.
“Regardless of a person’s good character and standing in life, when someone does wrong they need to be held accountable.
